Colonists survived by seizing what Indigenous peoples had already built.
Evidence
Had it been pristine wilderness then, it would possibly be so still today, for neither the technology nor the social organization of Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries had the capacity to maintain, of its own resources, outpost colonies thousands of miles from home. Incapable of conquering true wilderness, the Europeans were highly competent in the skill of conquering other people, and that is what they did. They did not settle a virgin land. They invaded and displaced a resident population. — Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the…, 113
Categorization
- XREF: Makes concrete the land-as-stolen, not land-as-empty claim central to Indigenous histories of the U.S. — connects to: US conquest of the Sioux followed the classic stages of colonialism — Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the…, 480; Johnson v. McIntosh held that mere discovery gave European governments title to Indigenous lands — Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the…, 501; Capitalist accumulation was built on colonial conquest and enslavement. — Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the…, 82 (+4 more)
- corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the…, 113
Broader Connections
- US founders designed westward expansion to seize Indigenous land
#corroborates(0.70) - Land entitlement claims rest on race rather than history in settler colonies
#expands(0.62)